Today I SO enjoyed chatting with Rebecca Egbert. Rebecca was a practicing midwife for nearly 10 years and is now the Founder and CEO of The Mother Love, a company building inclusive technology and connected communities to improve women’s health. Often told she has the energy of 7 people, hard work is part of her cellular body. After starting many businesses, she committed deeply to her entrepreneurial and innovative spirit deciding to take a giant leap away from clinical care, into the health education and tech world. With a hint of intuition and playful communication, Rebecca and her team create fun, accessible and actionable self-care tools that are designed to be used, most importantly, and shared to grow healthy women, strong families, and create connected communities. She loves her people and places deeply, and does a lot of things that might make you think she’s nuts in her little spare time. I so appreciated her real and honest approach and I know you will love this episode!

In her episode, we chat about:

Her interest in healthcare at a young age

How she saw a hole in the postpartum care arena from her experience as a midwife

You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or you can stream it here.

This episode of the postpartum podcast is sponsored by Aeroflow Breastpumps. Aeroflow helps you navigate qualifying for a breast pump through your insurance. Just because its covered, doesn’t mean it’s easy. Let Aeroflow handle the bureaucracy so that you can enjoy your baby. Go to aeroflowbreastpumps.com/postpartum to learn more.

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As always, please consider subscribing and leaving a review on iTunes here. Your reviews really help the show out because they allow it to be more visible so that we can reach more moms.

Do you shop on Amazon? Use this link and do your shopping as you always would and the show will get a teeny tiny kickback.

Today I so enjoyed chatting with local midwife, Chelsea Fredlund. Chelsea is a Licensed Midwife and Certified Professional Midwife at Placerville Midwifery. Her practice offers full-scale midwifery care for women who choose to birth at home, including prenatal visits, home birth, and postpartum visits. She also offers Birthing from Within childbirth education classes for clients and other families planning a natural childbirth in or out of the hospital. She is mom to one 4 ½ year old girl named Mariah and currently lives in Placerville, CA with her daughter and husband.

In her episode we chat about:

How nice it can be to come in and out of birth work while parenting young kids

Having her partner home for 3 months after birth

Her process of going from being a doula to a midwife in recent years

The importance of nutrition and exercise during pregnancy

Nursing challenging

Shifting your lifestyle around sleep

A "good" baby is not a sleepy baby

The difference between midwifery (particularly home birth midwifery) care and hospital care

Ways that you can use a midwife both for prenatal and postpartum, even if you plan to birth in a hospital

The importance of emotional support around your own parenting decisions during postpartum

Be ready to shift expectations!

This episode of the postpartum Podcast is sponsored by ICON UNDIES. Did you know that 1 in 3 women experience little bladder leaks when they run, jump, sneeze, or laugh? This is especially true for new moms. But because of Icon, You don’t have to worry! Their undies feel like a regular, beautiful pair of underwear, but can hold up to 6 teaspoons of liquid without the bulky, bunchy plasticy feel of a pantyliner. Icon is also offering listeners of the podcast $5 off your order with code postpartum at checkout.

You can find the show wherever you find your podcasts, or stream it here.

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As always, please consider subscribing and leaving a review on iTunes here. Your reviews really help the show out because they allow it to be more visible so that we can reach more moms.

Do you shop on Amazon? Use this link and do your shopping as you always would and the show will get a teeny tiny kickback.

Today I am excited to welcome blogger and fellow podcaster Bryn Huntpalmer. She is mom to two kiddos, blogs at With Her Own Wings, is a senior content manager for Modernize.com AND is the creator and host of the Birth Hour Podcast. I enjoyed sharing my daughter’s birth story on her podcast at the end of 2015. In her episode we talk about:

·Her first postpartum year while her and her husband were in grad and law school

·Interviewing for a job at 3 weeks postpartum

·How the strength from her birth allowed her to have a kickass interview

·Breastfeeding challenges

·How she got started with the Birth Hour Podcast

·Hormones!

·Reaching out to your friends who are new moms, even if they aren’t close friends

You can learn more about her podcast at The Birth Hour. To hear the episodes where she talks about her kids/ birth stories, go here and here. If you want to hear me talk about my daughter's birth story on her show, go here.

Today I got to chat with Julia Aziz. Julia is the mother of three children and author of Lessons of Labor: One Woman's Self-Discovery Through Birth and Motherhood. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a hospice spiritual counselor, Julia leads private classes and silent retreats exploring the bigger questions of self and purpose. Before having children, Julia worked as a counselor for youth, adults, couples, and families. She has facilitated a personal growth group for teens, silent retreats for midwives and doulas, and a mindfulness group for new mothers.

I so enjoyed chatting with her in depth about her birth and postpartum stories!

Just a few of the things we chat about: - How birth is a metaphor for what we need to learn as parents- Her vivid descriptions of her kids’ birth stories- How a 30 day challenge ted talk inspired her to start her book- How she learned to let go of control when it comes to parenting, and how labor taught her that. - Looking for the spaces in between the pain – in labor and in life- The best advice is to not take any advice too seriously- Love is expansive, not exclusive

Here is some praise from the one and only Penny Simkin about Julia’s Book:

“From her own unique and varied childbearing experiences, Julia Aziz learned much beyond what labor and birth can be like; she guides us through her musings on the lessons gained from her labors–about life as a woman, life partner, mother, and human being. This engaging book, told in her personable style and warm voice, relates how she was transformed, and her pithy wisdom helps us see how we also may be transformed by life’s unpredictable adventures.”–Penny Simkin, author of The Birth Partner, co-founder of DONA International